Healthy Mind, Happy Heart Wellington, New Zealand

Month: March 2017

1. The Tuesday evening is going to continue as my Creative Mindfulness class, get in touch if you want to join!

2. Also still doing the once a month colouring in Tawa, the mindfulness courses in schools and

3. Get in touch if you would like me to run a workshop/day/course on mindfulness/creative mindfulness/mental health etc at your workplace!!

Workout starts here ⏩ A kind heart is a happy and healthy heart!

Did you know it was scientifically proven that your heart gets strengthened by kindness!!

That is because there is a nerve connecting your brain with your heart that gets stronger as you practice kindfulness, which is another word for mindfulnuess 🙂 Amazing right??

So this week, try to be more kind to yourself in your selftalk and in what you are going to do or are not going to do.

And try to look out for opportunities to be kind to others as well.

If you are a natural at looking after others, which I know a lot of you are, skip the second part of this weeks’ workout and focus a bit more on looking out for what you can say or do to be more kind to yourself! You deserve it!

You are welcome to tag along to the Tuesday evenings Creative Mindfulness Sessions to learn some mindfulness, be creative, relax and increase your general wellbeing!
Email me on monique@easynowmindfulness.com for more info about this.

This week I’m giving away even more from my Rewire your Brain for Happiness course!!!
Find it useful? Why not share it with your friends!

Have a great week,
Monique🌷
Healthy Mind, Happy Heart

The A B C of mistakes most people make when they feel bad. Recognise any?

A. Attributing success to others and other factors, instead of to yourself. However you are very good at unnecessary attributing any failure to yourself.

B. Black and White thinking. There are so many shades of grey in between!

C. Catastrophising, make things, events, people in your life, a lot worse than they really are.

D. Doom thinking, the worst scenario is always going to happen for you.

E. Eternalising: I’m never going to learn this.

F. Fortune telling and crystal ball gazing: I will not like it there.

G. Goal hunting. Always finding new goals to works toward and forgetting to enjoy and be proud of what you have accomplished.

H. Hoping for change. You cannot change the other person, or the past. You have to find the solutions to feeling good in yourself.

I. I should…. I should not…A big list of rules you have made up, and whenever you break the rules, you feel bad. These thoughts will get you stressed straight away.

J. Judging! Feeling bad because we’re being judgemental, I failed the exam, I’m just not good enough.

K. Keeping it real! We tend to take our thoughts very seriously and often forget to cheque. Is it really true what you are thinking? Is this a fact? Proven by science? Have you got the right information to make decisions or to think this way? Do these thoughts make you feel bad? Than your thoughts are probably not realistic!

L. Laughing is healthy! Do not forget to smile! Humour helps getting through life a lot more than anger does!

M. Mind-reading, thinking that you know what the other person is thinking.

N. Nothing & never. Generalising,: This is hard, nothing is every easy in my life.

O. Over-estimating the chance that something will happen.

P. Placing value, you tend to put more value on negative things/feelings/experiences. You put less value on to positive things/feelings/experiences.

Q. Questioning. Do not forget to ask your self if your thoughts help to reach your goal? If the answer is no, the thought is not a helpful one.

R. Rebels, always opposing others, or blaming other people. Can your way of thinking bring you into conflict with others?

S. Self-talk.You tend to be very hard and negative on yourself, in ways you would never talk to your children or friends or partner. We all have self talk, and it is good to sit back and have a good look at it, and make sure you are kind to yourself.

T. Tut tut tut……Shame! The only thing that reverses shameful feelings, is to own your story.! That way there is no space for shame.

U. Utterly perfection, not accepting anything less form yourself and others.

Please let friends know about the Mindfulness Crochet Workshop coming up this Saturday, email me on monique@easynowmindfulness.com for info and registration, thanks heaps! I can’t do this without you!! 💜

Sleep like a baby, don’t we all want that!!

It’s easier than you think!

1. Avoid bright lights and screens at least an hour before you want to get to sleep.
2. Avoid any coffee/tea after the afternoon.
3. Make sure you get some exercise during the day. You can easily get some more steps in by parking further away, getting off the bus at an earlier stop for exeample.
4. Know that everybody skips a night sometimes, it’s totally normal and nothing bad happens if you do.
5. It’s also very normal to wake up a couple of times during the night, reassure yourself that you will just fall asleep again.
6. The main things that keeps us awake: thoughts! Make your to-do list well before bed time, plan a time to sit or write about whatever needs your attention, so there is no need to ruminate about it in bed.
7. No problem ever is as bad in the morning after a good night, as we think it is, in the middle of the night. Your night time is for sleeping, daytime is for analysing and planning.
8. Remove distractions from bed/bedroom and keep your bed for sleeping, not for watching telly, phoning friends or crafting 🙂
9. Make yourself as comfortable as possible in your bed.
10. Bring your attention to your breathing and just follow your breathing as you breath in and out.
Notice your abdomen rise and fall.
If you notice you get distracted by thoughts, sounds or what ever, just acknowledge it by silently saying “wandering” and bring your attention back to your breathing. It is absolutely normal that you will do this a lot of times!
11. Add some extra relaxation and focus by bringing your attention to your body, just scanning your body slowly from feet to legs, upper body, arms, hands and head. Notice any tension anywhere, relax, and go back to just following your breathing. If you find this hard to do by yourself, download a meditation app on our phone and use it. Insight Timer is my favourite app!
12. You will fall asleep.

What works for me, might not work for you, we are all different. That’s why I always encourage you to discover what is best for you as you know yourself best!
For me, what gets me to sleep, is focussing on breathing & sounds. Works everytime.

D0n’t give up if this is not working the first night, practice makes perfect!

So here we are in March! On Tuesday evening we have Creative Mindfulness and Satuday 18 March I run a Mindfulness Crochet workshop! Also colouring is on 26 March again 🙂

If you want to eat less, eat more healthy or just enjoy your meals more, there are some easy steps you can take. As always, do not ask to much from your self, little steps give you a much bigger chance to achieve your goal!

1. When you are eating, do not do anything else. Just focus all your attention on what you are doing, eating! Put your phone away, no watching television or reading a book!

2. Before you start eating, have a couple of focussed breaths to calm your body and mind, there’s no hurry to eat your meal asap!

3. Have a check in with yourself, are you really hungry? How hungry are you on a scale from 1 to 10? Are you sure you want to eat now, or can you wait a bit longer, how much longer?

4. Part of eating is using all your senses, smell your food, look at your food, gently take a bite, and focus on the taste, and how the food slowly changes shape as you chew it. Is the taste changing as you chew it? Taste it as if it is the first time ever you are eating this!

5. Notice any thoughts and judgments that pop up in your mind. Also notice how you feel. Is there any relation between these all?

Repeat step 3, 4 and 5 a acouple of times, depending on how much time you have 🙂

6. Take notice of your feelings of fullness, and notice if and when you feel satisfied enough to stop eating.

7. Do not overeat because you want to empty your plate. Whether it is something home cooked, or bought at the bakery, there is no difference whether you eat it or trow it away. You have cooked it already, you have spent the money already. However you will feel better if you do not eat more than you need!